MEAUX 



MECCA 



109 



Meath returns two members to parlia- 



Duleek. 

 inent. 



MrailX. a town in the Frencli department of 

 Seine-et-Marne, on a height above the river Marne, 

 28 miles NE. of Paris. It is a bishop's see, and in 

 its noble Gothic cathedral ( 12-16th century, but 

 still unfinished) is the grave of IJossnet (q.v.~), who 

 was bishop for twenty-three years. There is a large 

 trade with Paris in corn, flour, cream-cheeses, &c. 

 Meaux was besieged by the serfs of La Jacquerie 

 (1358), and captured from the League (1594). 

 Pop. (1872) 11,202; (1886) 12,201 ; (1891) 12,704. 

 See Carro, Histoire de Meaux (1865). 



Mecca (also anciently called Becca), the Mako- 

 raba of Ptolemy, is one of the oldest cities of Arabia 

 and the capital of the Hedja/, and as a holy city and 

 focus of pilgrimage it may lie called the metro- 

 polis of Isl.-im. It is situated in 21 30' N. lat. and 

 40 8' E. long., 245 miles S. of Medina and 65 E. of 

 Jiddah, its port on the Red Se, in a narrow barren 

 valley, surrounded by bare hills |>enetrated by 

 two passes, and so secluded from ol>servation that 

 it is not visible until 

 closely approached. The 

 barrenness of the soil 

 compelled the inhabit- 

 ants to go outside for 

 provisions, and the com- 

 mand of the principal 

 caravan road.-, both from 

 north to south and from 

 the coast to the high- 

 lands, gave the Meccans 

 unusual facilities for com 

 merce, and thus from a 

 very early period the city 

 was a notable trading 

 centre. But the chief 

 riiusi- of its prosperity 

 was its reputation as a 

 holy place, possessing 

 sacred objects, which well 

 repaid a pilgrimage ; 

 though whether the 

 original attraction was 

 the Black Stone or fetish 

 of the Kiiaba, or the 

 medicinal spring Zemzein, 

 is a matter of dispm<-. 

 The city itself, which is 

 mainly modern owing to 

 the frequent devastations 

 caused by the winter tor- 

 rents from the hills around, is alxmt 1500 paces long 

 and IM<> broad, and is divided into more than twenty 

 chief quarters. Along and lieyond it runs the cele- 

 brated sacred course, n broad road extending from 

 Safa to Marwa, which is run over by all pilgrims, 

 and also forms a frequented bazaar! The streets 

 are broad and airy, but unpaved and filthy, and 

 the houses, climbing the hills on either side, are 

 of stone, and well built, sometimes three or four 

 stories high, with flat roofs arid overhanging lattice- 

 windows. The interiors are well kept, since the 

 greater part of Mecca is devoted to the annual 

 pilgrimage which is the main support of a multi- 

 tune of lodging-house keepers, guides, and the other 

 attendants of a fashionable sanctuary. There are 

 charitable lodgings for the poorer pilgrims, and 

 ul.-o public baths, ami a hospital. Drainage there is 

 none, though there is plenty of water. Provisions, 

 meat, fruit, ttc. are readily procured from neighliour- 

 ing parts of Arabia. The' population, which is noto- 

 rious for its vice and corruption of every soil, is 

 prolwibly under 60,000; but these are annually 

 reinforced by at least an equal number of pilgrims. 

 The latter, however, are riot numerous enough to 



satisfy the natives, who fleece them without 

 remorse, and are too idle to supplement their ex- 

 tortions by any industry more vigorous than the 

 manufacture of sacred relics. The temple of 

 Mecca, or the Great Mosque, stands in the 

 broadest part of the valley, and consists of a 

 large quadrangle, capable of holding 35,000 

 persons, surrounded by arcades or cloisters, 

 with pillars of marble and granite, &c., and 

 entered by nineteen gates surmounted by seven 

 minarets. In the centre is the Kiiaba (i.e. cube), 

 which was the temple of Mecca ages before the 

 time of Mohammed, and then attracted pagan 



filgrims just as now it draws thousands of Moslems, 

 t has been twice rebuilt in historical times, but 

 the old form has l>een preserved. It is not quite 

 square, nor properly orientated ; and it measures 

 alMHit 18 paces by 14", and 35 or 40 feet high. When 

 Mohammed converted the heathen shrine into a 

 Mohammedan focus, the original notion of an idol 

 temple with a miraculous fetish was abandoned, 

 and the legend was invented that the Kaaba was 

 built by Abraham on the occasion of the outeasting 



Kaaba. ( From a private Photograph.) 



of Ishmael. The celebrated fetish, or Black Stone, 

 is apparently a meteorite, about a span long, built 

 into the south-east corner at the proper height for 

 kissing. There is also a ' Southern Stone,' of only 

 inferior sanctity. The pilgrim circumambulates 

 the Kaaba seven times, kisses the Black and 

 touches the Southern Stone, and also goes round the 

 Hijr or semicircular enclosure containing the so- 

 called graves of Hagar and Ishmael. The Kiiaha 

 has always been richly decorated, and has long been 

 annually re-covered (leaving only apertures for the 

 two stones) with handsome brocaded hangings 

 presented by the Sultan of Turkey, and brought 

 with much state, along with the traditional 

 Mahmal or Holy Carpet, by the Egyptian Hajj 

 (q.v. ), or caravan of pilgrims. The other chief 

 decorations are the silver-gilt door, seldom opened, 

 the marble inlay and silver-gilt plating and silk 

 hangings of the interior, which contains little of 

 interest. Hard by, and also within the court, is 

 the celebrated well of Zenizem, a deep shaft covered 

 by a cupola ; the tepid water of which may once 

 have been mineral, and is still regarded as miracu- 

 lous, although the largest item in its present 



